Cathedral of Eternal Night Dungeon Strategy Guide

Cathedral of Eternal Night is a new Heroic and Mythic(+) dungeon coming in Patch 7.2. Learn how to defeat all of the bosses - Agronox, Thrashbite the Scornful, Domatrax, Mephistroth - with our dungeon strategy guide written by FatbossTV.

FatbossTV PTR Preview

FatbossTV previewed Cathedral of Eternal Night on the 7.2 PTR. Check out their video guide below:

Dungeon Lore

Something sinister lurks in the upper chamber of Sargeras’ tomb. Once a peaceful place of worship, corruption has turned protector into poisoner, with Mephistroth at the helm - and the powerful dreadlord has one aim: to annihilate those who seek to return the Aegis of Aggramar to its resting place.

For Mephistroth, your attempt to infiltrate the Cathedral of Eternal Night is a deeply personal matter. The warlocks among you killed his favored general, Jagganoth, stringing up his corpse and heart in your Order Hall as both a warning and source of power. As for the rest of you, Mephistroth is seeking retribution for your recent brutal attacks on the Broken Shore. The memories are fresh. And revenge is sweet.

Illidan and Maiev are reunited in this dungeon, and they have some fun interactions!

Loot and Relic Lists

Loot from Cathedral of Eternal Night starts at 865 on Heroic difficulty and 885 on Mythic difficulty. This dungeon is not available on Normal difficulty.

Mythic+ Loot and Timer

Cathedral of Eternal Night Mythic+ Times

KeystoneUpgrade

Time toBeat

TimeRemaining

+1

33:00

0:00

+2

26:24

6:36

+3

19:48

13:12

For Mythic+ Dungeons, loot does not drop per boss. At the end of the dungeon, a special chest will spawn that contains epic items from the dungeon's loot table, for which the base ilvl increases based on the level. The loot is personal, so each player should loot it to see what their reward is. Two pieces of loot are guaranteed for the party, and the items will be appropriate to the player's class/spec.

In addition, if you successfully complete a Mythic+ dungeon within the time allotted, the Keystone that was used to start the attempt will become upgraded by at least 1 level. The faster you clear the content, the larger the upgrade, up to a maximum of 3 levels higher.

If the party upgrades the keystone by more than one level, they will also receive the corresponding number of loot chests.

In 7.2, all Medium Length dungeons will give the following AP token based on the Keystone level. The amount of AP is multipled by your current Artifact Knowledge, which can be found in this post:

Attunement

Once you complete the opening Scenario and first quests on the Broken Shore, you’ll gain access to the new dungeon, Cathedral of Eternal Night. Khadgar will have a quest that will send you into its upper reaches, where you’ll face Mephistroth once more. Venturing into the cathedral isn’t required to progress through the Broken Shore—but if you want another shot at Mephistroth, this is your chance.

Hellblaze Soulmenders cast Demonic Mending which needs to be interrupted to prevent them from healing the trash.

Hellblaze Felbringers cast Burning Celerity which places a bubble on the ground which increases your haste by 50%, but deals ticking damage to you every second. Standing within the bubble grants 50% haste... but deals high ticking damage!

This ability effects enemies.

You want to drag enemies out of it, whilst DPS stand within it to deal increased damage. Just ensure that the healer can keep the players within the bubble topped up.

Dreadwings will cast Shadow Swipe at the tank. This will deal a moderate amount of damage to the tank and knock them back.

The tank needs to be careful not to be knocked back into extra trash mobs, or knocked back off of the balcony to their death.

Felblight Stalkers will leap to a random player, dealing damage upon impact. They will then cast Devour Magic, which will silence nearby players for 4 seconds at the end of the cast.

Players can simply move out of the Devour Magic AoE around the Stalkers to avoid the silence effect.

Immediately to the left as you first enter the balcony area, you can find the mini-boss Dul'zak. Sidestep out of the incoming Shadow Waves!

He casts Shadow Wave towards a random player.

This is a large frontal cone which deals a large amount of damage to anyone caught in its path, whilst also leave purple goo on the ground which deals ticking damage to you.

Players need to keep an eye on what direction he is facing so that they can side step the Shadow Wave during its cast.

This makes this particular trash pack difficult to deal with, as you will have to deal with multiple trash abilities at the same time as the Shadow Wave from Dul'zak.

This pack is entirely optional, so players can skip this by just continuing along the walkway to the right. However, doing so will cause Dul'zak to run over to the group and engage them.

As you progress along the walkway, there are several small rooms that you can enter. These rooms are optional, and will sometimes have treasure chests inside which can grant Artifact Power and Order Hall Resources to the group.

Once you reach the opposite side of the walkway, players need to ascend the spiral staircase to reach the second floor, which will contain a different set of trash.

Fulminating Lashers will spawn at the back of the room and must be kited and killedThe Agronox encounter requires frequent target switching and high damage and healing output to counteract the ever increasing damage the group takes.

Agronox will periodically cast Poisonous Spores. This places a permanent debuff on the entire group which deals ticking damage.

This acts as a pseudo enrage on the fight, as each application of Poisonous Spores will add another stack of ticking damage to the group.

Healers should aim to use their healing cooldowns for later parts of the fight to help counteract the increased incoming damage.

Agronox will cast Timber Smash on the tank, which deals a large burst of Physical damage and knocks them up.

Tanks want to ensure they have a form of active mitigation or damage reduction cooldown up for each of these casts.

Notable Trash Mobs

Don't stand in book landing locationsAfter ascending the spiral staircase on the southern side of the second floor, you will ascend up the the third level.

Players will have to deal with multiple Helblaze Imps at once. These imps will cast Fel Bolt at a random player, dealing a burst of damage.

The imps are likely to start their Fel Bolt casts in unison, and it is possible that multiple bolts will hit a single player and kill them.

To counter this, you should use AoE stuns, silences and displacement effects to disrupt these casts as you cleave them all down.

Within the Helblaze Imp packs, you will have a couple Wyrmtongue Scavengers. These will throw different types of tomes at the location of players. The landing location of the book is indicated by a swirly circle. Players should keep an eye on their feet to make sure they are not nearby when the tome lands. The scavengers will throw:

Silence Tomes which will silence any nearby player.

Frost Tomes which will encase a player in ice, stunning them until the ice block around them is destroyed, or until the scavengers die.

Arcane Tomes which will deal a burst of damage to any nearby player.

Before the second boss spawns, you will need to kill a mini-boss called Gazerax.

The Thrashbite encounter requires great group positioning and occasional add switching. His abilities, although extremely deadly, are very easy to read and counter.

Move 15 yards away from Thrashbite when he casts Pulverizing CudgelThrashbite will frequently cast Pulverizing Cudgel. This deals a burst of damage to the entire group, as well as dealing lethal damage to anyone within 15 yards.

The tank and any melee dps need to make sure they move away 15 yards to ensure they are not one shot by this ability

Ranged players should try and stay 15 yards away from Thrashbite as much as possible, to reduce the amount of movement that they need to do.

On a timer, Thrashbite will cast Heave Cudgel. He will throw his weapon to the side of the room and it will slowly move around the outside of the encounter area, dealing lethal damage to anyone within its path.

You need to make sure that you are within the "inner circle" of the room, as otherwise you will be hit by the Cudgel and die.

Stand behind a bookcase when targeted with Scournful GazeOccasionally, Thrashbite will cast Scornful Gaze. He will turn to focus a player, and after 7 seconds he will charge towards them.

Anyone caught in the path of this Scornful Charge will take lethal damage.

The player who is targeted with Scornful Gaze needs to position one of the bookcases between themselves and Thrashbite

This will cause Thrashbite to crash into the bookcase and become stunned for a short period of time.

Everyone else in the Party need to make sure that they are not in the way of the charge, as otherwise they will die.

Each bookcase Thrashbite charges into is destroyed, and cannot be used to stun him again.

As you only have 4 bookcases, you can only counter the Scornful Gaze 4 times before players will start dying to the ability.

This acts as a pseudo enrage, as Thrashbite needs to die before you run out of bookcases.

Mythic ThrashbiteEach time a bookcase is destroyed on Mythic, two animated books will spawn. There are three different types of animated books.

All 3 of them have 1 special ability which they will cast infrequently and one shared ability which is Arcane bolt. They will fire these at random players dealing a small amount of damage to them.

Kill the Animated Books quickly to avoid their devastating special abilities

The Satirical Book will cast Stifling Satire, which silences everyone for 5 seconds.

The Fictional book will cast Fettering Fiction, slow everyone in the group.This can occur around the same time as a Pulverizing Cudgel, which can lead to nearby players getting hit by the ability.

The slow can be dispelled by a healer, as well as removed through other spells that remove movement speed reductions.

The tank needs to face these away from the group to prevent anyone else taking the dot.

Don't stand in front of Nal'asha when she casts Venom Storm!After the Enforcers and Orbcaster is dead, the group should then focus down Nal'asha. Nal'asha will cast vanish and appear behind a random player in the group.

She will then cast Venom Storm, which is a frontal cone that deals a large amount of damage.

Players need to identify where Nal'asha is, and then quickly move out of the incoming Venom Storm.

When she vanishes, she will leave behind a pool of webbing at her initial location.

This pool reduces movement speed and haste by 50%, so players should avoid standing within it as much as possible.

She will also cast Spider Call, which summons several Necrotic Spiderlings that will descend from the webbing above.

The tank should pick up these spiders as players cleave them down.

Killing Nal'asha will grant access to the final spiral staircase and room of the instance where you will fight the third boss, Domatrax. Players must interact with the Aegis of Aggramar to get Domatrax to spawn.

Note: Interacting with the Aegis will not cause the Domatrax Encounter to begin immediately. Instead players start the encounter when they start attacking Domatrax directly.

Stand within the Aegis to survive the Chaotic Energy cast!He will frequently cast Chaotic Energy. After a 5 second cast, he will deal a large burst of damage to the entire group. Any non tank target without a large damage reduction will likely be one shot by this ability.

The entire group should ensure that they move within the aegis before the cast ends. This will grant them the damage reduction necessary to survive the ability.

As soon as the cast is over, players should leave the Aegis. This will allow players to output unimpeded damage and healing, whilst reserving as much of the Aegis's energy as possible.

Domatrax will cast Felsoul Cleave towards the tank. After a short cast, this will deal a large amount of fire damage within a cone infront of Domatrax.

Tanks are able to side step the ability once the cast begins, which prevents them from taking excess damage.

If the Felsoul Cleave hits the Aegis, the Aegis will lose 50% of its energy.

At 90%, Domatrax will summon two Fel Portal Guardians. These guardians will each hold open a portal which will be spewing out Hellblaze Imps. The imps have an interruptible cast named Fel Blast, which will deal a burst of damage to a random player and anyone within 4 yards of that player.

Players should remain spread atleast 4 yards apart from one another whilst the Imps are active, to avoid splashing damage onto one another.

DPS should focus on killing the Fel Portal Guardians before killing the Imps, as this will substantially reduce the overall amount of imps you need to kill.

Quickly kill any Searing Overlords that accidentally spawn!Hellblaze Mistresses need to be picked up by the tankAs soon as the Fel Portal Guardians spawn, they will start casting Approaching Doom. If the 20 second cast goes off, a Searing Overlord add will spawn.

This Searing Overlord needs to be picked up by the tank and nuked down quickly, as it is dealing high ticking damage to the group through its Searing Presence.

To avoid spawning a Searing Overlord, both Fel Portal Guardians should be focused down by the DPS as soon as possible.

After both Guardians are dead, DPS want to finish off any remaining Felblaze Imps before switching back to the boss.

At 50%, when Domatrax summons the second set of Fel Portal Guardians, the Guardians will now spawn Hellblaze Mistresses instead of Hellblaze Felguards.

Notable Trash Mobs

Avoid the Fel Blaze from the "fly-by" DreadwingsAs soon as Domatrax dies, four Dreadwings will fly in through the broken windows around the encounter area.

Whilst fighting the Dreadwings, players will be bombarded by other Dreadwings that fly though one window, cast Fel Blaze, then fly out the another.

You can avoid these by simply moving out of the swirly circles on the ground.

Once you kill off the Dreadwings, Mephistroth will appear.

Note: Mephistroth will not engage the group immediately, instead you either have to get close to him or attack him directly.

Mephistroth Tips & Strategy

Mephistroth has two phases which he will cycle through until he is defeated. To defeat the encounter players need to be aware of debuffs and have great positioning.

Have the tank use the Aegis in Phase 2!Before you pull Mephistroth, have your tank pick up the Aegis of Aggramar. This grant them an extra action button that they will be using in phase 2. If a non tank accidentally picks up the Aegis, that player can right click the buff you gain. Doing so will drop the Aegis on the ground, allowing the tank to pick it up.

This is a 4 debuff applied to two non-tank targets with a 4 second duration, that will cause a large circle to spawn on the ground after it expires.

Shortly after the circle has spawned, a giant pillar will erupt out of the ground, dealing damage to the entire group and a huge amount of damage to anyone within the circle.

You want to move towards the edge of the room with the debuff so that the pillar will spawn away from the group.

Roughly 40 seconds into the fight, once Mephistroth has gained 100% energy he will cast Shadow Fade, become invisible and Phase 2 will begin.

Phase 2: Fades to ShadowDuring this phase the group cannot damage Mephistroth. Instead, you have to protect Illidan whilst he slowly gains energy to cast Expel Shadows, which will bring you back to Phase 1.

Protect Illidan by soaking the incoming Shadow Blasts with the Aegis of Aggramar.Throughout the phase, Shadow of Mephistroth adds will spawn around the outside of the room. These will send out Shadow Blasts towards Illidan who is in the center of the room.

If a Shadow Blast reaches Illidan, it will temporarily interrupt his energy regeneration, extending the phase.

Shadow Blast orbs disappear and deal a large amount of damage when they come into contact with a player, however using the Aegis makes you immune to this damage.

The tank with the Aegis needs to activate it, and stand ontop of Illidan. They then need to rotate around the catch any of the incoming Shadow Blast orbs.

Whilst this is happening, the DPS should kill off the Shadow of Mephistroth adds around the room, to reduce the amount of orbs the Tank needs to soak with the aegis.

Throughout the phase, the group will be taking ever increasing ticking damage from Creeping Shadows. You need to get Illidan to full energy quickly, as otherwise the healer may not be able to keep up with the incoming group damage.

After Illidan gains full energy and casts Expel Shadows, all Shadow of Mephistroth adds and Mephistroth will reappear. The fight will then continue to cycle through these two phases until Mephistroth is defeated.

Mephistroth Mythic:

During Phase Two, players will be bombarded by other Dreadwings that fly though one window, cast Fel Blaze, then fly out the another.

You can avoid these by simply moving out of the swirly circles on the ground.

These Dreadwings will continue these bombardments throughout the rest of the fight.

Role Responsibilities

Tank Responsibilities:Phase 1:

Pick up the Aegis at the begining of the fight

Face Mephistroth towards the walls of the encounter area and use damage reductions for his Carrion Swarm cast

Spread 5-10 yards away from any other player, to avoid splashing damage onto anyone else when Dark Solitude is cast

Phase 2:

Activate the Aegis by using the Extra Action Button.

Stand on top of Illidan and rotate on the spot to have the Aegis soak all incoming Shadow Blasts from the Shadow of Mephistroph adds around the room

Be prepared to use personal cooldowns towards the end of phase 2, to help combat the damage from the Creeping Shadows

Comments

Comment by Baboen

Comment by ruthven78

had a glitch on my first run through were in phase 2 of Mephistroth (Heroic) the orbs were going through the shield and hitting Illidan. Worked just fine on our 2nd try

Comment by MrTride

This dungeon is really fun. Altho it scales somewhat horribly with the mythic+ progressions at higher keystones. We did it at +11 at around ilvl900 with the affixes, rageing, volcanic and tyrranical. Problems occured at first and last boss. The tree guys spores and his huge smash attacks quickly ramped up to unhealable levels. We eventually had to go out and make it a 2 healer, 2 dps and a tank setup, making the fight a bit longer but at least we could keep tank alive while doing this. Togheter we had a 2,1 milion hp/s just to get trought the encounter.

Mephistroth however was in a league of his own having the stacking debuff reaching 700k / s even if executed properly(no ords hitting illidan). With one healer we managed trought one of the darkness phases but once more we had too swap to a two healer setup just to handle unavoidable dmg mechanics. The total dmg taken by the group from his stacking debuff were about 60 milion / person. Which is quite hard to heal trought even for seasoned healers.

So if you want to fully complete this dungeon at higher difficulties at least with tyrranical Id highly recommend to bring a decent dps/heal hybrid and make him leave the dungeon and respec before the tree boss and mephistroth. But he must also leave to respec once more because the other two bosses are more or less a dps race.

Comment by Fjare

The Dungeonworldquest in the Cathedral dont give any Reputation, atleast not on Heroic

Comment by Anatta

The Hellblaze Mistresses spawned during the Domatrax fight on Mythic and Mythic+ difficulties can be very dangerous due to their knockback. If they are brought close to the shield when the group are using it to hide from chaotic energy, they may knock the whole group out of the shield and lead to a wipe.

They spawn from the portals that open when the boss is at 50% health, so the group may wish to hold back on DPS so that the portals open immediately after chaotic energy has been used. That gives the maximum possible time to deal with the portals and to kill the Hellblaze Mistresses before needing to use the shield.

If your group has them available various CC can be used to keep the mistresses away from the group when using the shield. They can be stunned, slowed, rooted, and knocked back. As a restoration druid I found Ursol's Vortex useful for this purpose. Just place it where the tank is holding the mobs, and they'll be kept there long enough for the group to safely hide from Domatrax's chaotic energy attack.

Alternatively the tank can hold them away from the shield and use strong defensive cooldowns to survive chaotic energy without the shield's protection. This method requires the least coordination with the rest of the group, so may be preferable in PUGs. However if the tyrannical modifier is active many tanks would be at serious risk of death.